One thing that came to mind in reading the story in the March 2019 Newsletter about women's suffrage occurring in most western states before the passage of the 19th Amendment making it universal in 1920, was that the same was true here in Alaska. When Alaska first became a Territory in 1912 (it was only a District before that), the very first law passed by the first Alaska Territorial Legislature in 1913 was the enfranchisement of women.  This is similar to what happened in Utah when it became a territory in 1868.  The Utah Territorial Legislature passed voting rights for women in 1869 also a year after becoming a Territory.  In both cases, this was a recognition of the importance of women in the settlement of the West.  Also, like in other parts of the West, women homesteaded in Alaska, but the actual percentage of men vs. women homesteaders in Alaska is illusive as no specific records were kept that can be easily tabulated today.  By just by looking at the first names of homesteaders here in Alaska (and that can be tricky for some names), I would guess that perhaps around 5% of Alaska's homesteaders were women.  

So, why not more?  Well, that could be another interesting bit of research but one relevant factor is limited access to land that could be homesteaded in many parts of Alaska.  Yet there is a parallel in that regard in Alaska to homesteading throughout the rest of the USA, too.  The majority of homestead claims filed and granted in the USA were not done in the earliest years of homesteading.  Instead, more homesteading was done in the later years of homesteading when there were more railroads and better wagon/car roads so people could get to their claims more easily.  But Alaska never had that many railroads or even many wagon/car roads (and we still don't today).  Also, complying with homestead requirements was especially difficult in many parts of Alaska for both men and women due to limited growing seasons, harsh weather in many areas, and unsuitability of soils for farming also in many areas.  Consequently, the total number of homesteads in Alaska by both men and women was relatively low, estimated at about 3,500.  And while we do have a few great examples of amazing women homesteaders in Alaska who cleared their land and made cabins largely by their own labor (and some hired it done, too), their stories are rare.  

My favorite one is of an amazing woman, Ethel Kavanaugh, who worked for the General Land Office here in Anchorage.  As part of her job, she answered questions by phone, mail, and in person about homestead requirements and where people could go to file homestead claims.  Becoming an expert on the subject, Mrs. Kavanaugh decided to quit her job in the early 1940s and go homesteading herself -- and did.  In 1942, she filed for a 160-acre homestead 35 miles from Homer, Alaska (south of Anchorage) and successfully proved up on her claim in 1956.  But there's more to this remarkable story.  Her daughter, Dorothy Clifton also came with her mother homesteading and then applied for her own homestead a few years later adjoining her mother's homestead.  Dorothy Clifton also successfully proved up and her 160-acre homestead was patented to her in 1958.  In 1951, Mrs. Kavanaugh wrote a book about her and her daughter's experiences homesteading, Wilderness Homesteaders, which included great pictures of the two women building their cabins.  

Another remarkable woman Alaska homesteader story I know about is of Mahala Ashley Dickerson (1912-1997), Alabama's first African-American female attorney.   She filed for a 160-acre homestead north of Anchorage in 1958, just two days after arriving in Alaska, and received patent to it in 1964 just at the time of the 9.2 magnitude Alaskan earthquake.  She knew Rosa Parks and once hosted Ms. Parks during her visit to Alaska.  Ms. Dickerson also wrote a fascinating book about her most amazing life, Delayed Justice For Sale (1991), which included an account of her homestead experience.  In all, more stories about women homesteaders in Alaska and elsewhere need to be researched and told.  They will reveal even more richness to the larger homestead story in the United States that remains very important even today for understanding our nation.